Kalaburagi district has set a new benchmark for other districts in the State by providing employment to large number of landless farmers and labourers in rural areas under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, according to Aniruddh Sravan, Chief Executive Officer of Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat.
Inaugurating the MGNREGA awareness campaign jointly organised by Akhila Bharat Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, Prajna Kanoonu Salaha Samiti Kalaburagi and Channamma Mahila self-help group in Kalaburagi city on Thursday, Mr. Sravan said the MGNREGA scheme, if implemented properly, can bring about substantial changes in the lives of people, especially those belonging to lower economic groups.
Earlier, large numbers of landless labourers were denied job cards and employment under the scheme. Mr. Sravan said that the labourers from different villages across the district expressed displeasure regarding the officials’ indifferent attitude in providing employment under the scheme.
For effective implementation of the scheme in the district, corrective steps were taken by conducting random inspection to weed out fake job cards. Though the earlier concept of MGNREGA changed with the enrolment of eligible beneficiaries and issuing job cards to the needy, the beneficiaries still needed to understand its importance and value.
K. Neela, State vice-president of the Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, said that with the effective implementation of MGNREGA, the demand for work under the scheme has gone up. Consequently, migration has been checked and many families have been reunited. She added the scheme helped landless labourers improve their economic conditions and some workers even have begun saving money in a bank.
Mr. Sravan released the book ‘Bevara Hani’ packed with the successful stories of landless labourers and farmers benefited by the MGNREGA scheme. President of the Prajna Kanoonu Salaha Samiti Meenakshi Bali and senior writer Prabhu Khanapure were present.
